Went to start our '91 F Festiva this morning and - nothing. Dead
battery. I noticed the dome light was very weak, and of course no
headlights. However before I disconnected the neg. battery cable in
order to connect the battery charger I noticed a definate and steady
clicking sound coming from somewhere around the passsenger side of the
engine compartment but can't pinpoint where it's coming from.

Here's the weird part. This noise dissapears when the driver's door
is open, and if I turn on the dome light to the stay 'on' position and
then shut the door or even partially engage the door to be shut, the
ticking sound stops. If i turn the dome light back to where it shuts
off when the door is shut, the ticking resumes.

At this point I tested the battery and it has a little over 9 volts,
so currently I have the charger on it. Meantime, does this action
sound familiar to anyone?

maybe it was your headlight beeper no longer beeping, thats why you left your lights on and drained your battery, a low voltage battery will give a lot of wierd sounds if the key is on and nothing has enough power to activate, charge the battery and hook it up and see iif the problem goes away

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Despite the high cost of living, it remains very popular.

your solenoid is stuck in the one posistion and when it just keeps fliping to complete the circuit you did the right thing to disconect the battery. get a new one or just beat the hell out of yoru solenoid.

Thanks to all for the advice and help. Wife thinks now she left the parking lights on yesterday afternoon when she got home. It had been raining and overcast. I charged the battery up, cleaned the terminals and posts. Battery's hanging in at 12.4.